The Mid Atlantic Championship presented by Coca Cola, supported by Dish Network, once again took place at the twin fields of the British Officers Cricket Club near Philadelphia, and involved National Champion University of Maryland Baltimore (UMBC), 2011 Nationals Semi Finalist & 2013 Ivy League Champion University of Pennsylvania, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Princeton and Drexel.

The Semis & Finals were shown on TV Asia on all major cable systems in the USA & Canada.

MID ATLANTIC FINALS

UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA vs UMBC – Probably no one gave Penn a chance against National Champion UMBC when the 2 teams met in the Finals of the Mid Atlantic Championship, televised across the USA & Canada. But TV viewers were in a for a thrilling game that went down to the last ball !

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Mayurnath Rao launched an assault on the UMBC fast bowlers, like a West Indian batsman from the 60s, 70s or 80s ! Hooks and cuts yielded 9 fours & 4 sixes to give Rao 72 in 38 balls. Stroke player Rueben Abraham, played a secondary role as the 2 openers put on 100 in 10.5 overs before Rao went lbw, then Abraham followed for 28 runs. The blistering start enabled Penn to get 175 for 3 in 20.

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Rahul Bhanot 33 and Minhaj Shahid 32 got UMBC off to a great start, hitting 57 in 6.4 balls before the first wicket fell. Rao & Rai then ripped through the UMBC middle order and it was 99 for 5 before Rikin Parikh played a captains’ knock of 42 to combine with Gurnish Singh 32 to take UMBC to 151 before Parikh was out, at 16.5 overs. 25 balls, 25 runs & 4 wickets in hand meant UMBC were practically home free !

But Valapadi-Bhaskar removed Anand Patel for a duck whilst Rai got the in form Gurnish Singh for 32 and it was 169 for 8 ! 6 balls left, 7 runs needed & 2 wickets left !

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Jay Dave ran out fast bowler Aluvathingal, making it 169 for 9 with 5 balls left. Then with 1 ball left, 3 runs were need for the National Champions to get the win – 1 wicket was needed for Penn to have the upset of the year !

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Usman Shahid was run out on the last ball giving Penn the win by 2 runs !

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An amazing finish to a thrilling Mid Atlantic Finals, with Penn upsetting UMBC & getting their 2nd title, after winning the Colin M Jodah Trophy at the Ivy League Championship !

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA vs DREXEL ; Penn routed new club Drexel, who had looked good up to this game. None of the Drexel batsment got into double figures whilst veteran Penn opening bowler Aditya Nagaraja too 3 wickets for 8. The other Penn bowlers shared the rest of the wickets.

UMBC vs PENN STATE - Centurion didn’t get score much but consistent scoring by the UMBC Retreivers’ middle order got them to a good total of 171 for 9 in 20. Gurnish Singh 37, Rocy Islam 29, Captain Rikin Parikh 28 run out were the top scorers. Remarkably Chirag Methani took 5 wickets for 31 runs !

In response Penn State got 110 for 7 off 20 with Shreyansh Jain making 34, and Siddarth Datla 21. Big hitter Rohit Reddy was run out for 8 and UMBC won easily. Mehtani was the MVP.http://www.crichq.com/matches/68892#inning-1

Despite heavy rain the 2 days before, thanks to BOCC President Ernie Precious, the fields were ready to play, with a fast outfield. American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah,among other duties, had discussions with the teams about ‘Home & Away’ matches & the future.

Six games took place on the Saturday of the tournament, to determine the Final Four. Here are the Match Reports:

VIRGINIA TECH vs DREXEL U: This game provided excitement down to the last ball, in a tightly contest match ! Batting first the Drexel Dragons had some early batting success, & was 97 for 2. Sanghavi made 34Malhotra 30 & Maeez Veqar 20.

Maeez Veqar is a younger brother of Nafal Veqar who played for Boston University at the first American College Cricket Spring Break Championship in 2009 & looked to be a good batsman ! For VT Siddanth Pai took 2 for 10, & Karthik Radhakrishnan 2 for 23.

The Hokies response was mainly led by Anirudh Roy who made 46 in 33 balls,with 4 fours & 3 sixes but wickets kept falling at the other end even as Tech kept up with the required runs !

With 1 to tie,2 to win on the final ball, Jasim Khan was run out for 15 ! & Drexel won ! Kabir Monocha took 3 for 33, Veqar 2 for 12 & Yadav 2 for 21.

UMBC vs DREXEL: Drexel came into this game brimming with coincidence but ran into the buzzsaw of Rahul Bhanot, making his American College Cricket debut ! Rahul blasted 108 in 70 balls, with 8 fours & 6 sixes – hitting many way out of the ground ! Kulkarni made 34 and Minaj Shahid 23 as the UMBC Retreivers amassed 192 for 6.

Some early wickets by Gurnish Singh, Maniar & Shahid ensured the Dragons were out of it.

Ranasinghe made 35,Malhotra 35 and Dokania 30* as Drexel managed to get to 118 for 7 in 20, losing by 75 runs.

VIRGINIA TECH vs UMBC: Another thrilling match involving Virginia Tech Hokies ! Betting first the Hokies made 123 in 16 overs (a reduced overs match) Anirudh made 18 whoilst Jasim Khan was agin run out in the final over looking for runs, for 19. UMBC’s Maniar took 2 for 23.

Despite Shahid’s 24, & Bhanot’s 17 UMBC were in trouble at 49 for 4, and wickets kept tumbling. But some clean & confident driving by Gurnish for 7 massive sixes kept UMBC in the game !

PRINCETON vs U of PENN: Aditya Nagaraja took 2 quick wickets (for 10) to begin Princeton’s slide, that Subas Poudel (3 for 15) hastened, and Roshan Rai 3 for 4 wrapped up the tail, even adding a run out to his tally. Princeton mustered only 63 all out, though they played with a few of their top players, including Ryan Edwards !

Mayur Rao (no relation to Roshan) then launched an attack like West Indian Rohan Kanhai, beginning with a glorious cover drive, followed by swirling & spinning hooks, and slashing cuts to get 50* out of the 64 needed to win (7 fours,1 six) . His partner Ruben Abraham, himself an attacking strokeplayer, just gave the strike to Rao as much as possible and finished on 8*

PENN STATE vs PRINCETON: Madhav Sinha (Penn State) took 3 wickets for 13 runs, had 2 run outs and a catch as Penn State restricted Princeton to 84 all out in 19.5 overs. Vijit Kappor 15 was the top scorer. Chirag Mehtani took 2 for 9.

Big Rohit Reddy smashed 3 fours and 1 six in his 20 in 6 balls to polish off the win for Penn State, Shreyansh Jain made 26.

A lot of players will NOT have their complete stats recognised because of not taking responsibilty to ensure the scoring is done correctly, or corrected afterwards. There should be NO “Unsures” on scorecards.